Dennis the Menace is a daily syndicated newspaper comic strip originally created, written, and illustrated by Hank Ketcham. It debuted on March 12, 1951, in 16 newspapers[1] and was originally distributed by Post-Hall Syndicate.[2] It is now written and drawn by Ketcham's former assistants, Marcus Hamilton (weekdays, since 1995), Ron Ferdinand (Sundays, since 1981), and son Scott Ketcham (since 2010), and distributed to at least 1,000 newspapers in 48 countries and in 19 languages by King Features Syndicate.[3] The comic strip usually runs for a single panel on weekdays and a full strip on Sundays.

The comic strip became so successful that it was adapted to other popular media, including several television shows, both live-action and animated, and several feature films, including theatrical and direct-to-video releases.

Coincidentally, a UK comic strip of the same name debuted on the same day, though the issue in question bore the cover date of March 17. The two are not related and change their names subtly in each other's respective home bases to avoid confusion.

Dennis the Menace takes place in a middle-class suburban neighborhood in Wichita, Kansas.[4] The Mitchells live in a two-story house at 2251 Pine Street.[5] The Wilsons live next door at 2253 Pine Street.[6]

Dennis Mitchell is an importuning but lovable, freckle-faced five-and-a-half-year-old[7] boy with a famous blonde cowlick and a penchant for mischief. His long-suffering parents can only shake their heads and try to explain their son's antics to others. Despite this, they really do love him very much. Dennis's wide-eyed curiosity, his well-meaning attempts to help, his innocent, matter-of-fact bluntness, and his youthful energy and enthusiastic nature always leads to trouble wherever he goes (often at Mr. Wilson's expense). He wears a blue/black striped shirt, tennis shoes, and red overalls with pockets that are sometimes filled with snakes, frogs, or his slingshot. He hates carrots and baths, loves root beer (especially with cookies), ketchup, water pistols, his teddy bear "Teddy", getting into fights with other boys his age, mud puddles, and TV Westerns (especially those starring Cowboy Bob), and has occasionally been depicted wearing a cowboy costume.[8] Dennis has a poster and an autographed picture of Cowboy Bob, as well. In fact, he is such a fan that once a week he goes to the local theater to watch a Cowboy Bob Western. A favorite TV show of Dennis's is "Uncle Earl."[9] Among the running gags: Dennis has a soft spot for kittens and puppies, which he is always taking home to feed; he loves loud instruments—such as horns and drums; and he ruins Christmas songs with shouts of cowboy songs or annoys adults by shouting out loud. Whenever Dennis is in the local department store trying out toys, such as tricycles, he ends up breaking them and his parents have to buy them. In fact, Dennis nearly causes kindergarten teachers,[10] librarians [11] department store Christmas Santas, department store saleswomen, drugstore salesmen, hardware store salesmen, shoe salesmen, barbers, and the local post office workers to have nervous breakdowns when he comes around.[12] Dennis also believes in the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus; another running gag is Dennis on Christmas Eve dreaming that he meets Santa Claus, and causing chaos for everyone else.

Henry Mitchell, age 32, [13] is Dennis' father, a workaday aerospace engineer. Henry seems to understand Dennis more than his wife does, especially in affairs of the heart. One example was when a furious Dennis stormed in, saying, "Wimmin can say some of the stupidest things!"; Henry knowingly said to Alice, "Margaret." Another time, while Dennis was watching Gina, he confided to his dad, "There's somethin' about Gina that I can't figger out." Henry wisely advised his son, "Wait." Again, Henry and Alice overhear Dennis tell Gina that she "smelled better than a plateful of peanut butter samwiches". Henry remarks, "The ultimate compliment." Like his creator Hank Ketcham, Henry served in the US Navy; his position was as a quartermaster (Helmsman) 2nd class on a battleship. Sometimes, Alice and he get into arguments (which even show his chauvinistic side at times); however, they remain devoted to each other. Among his hobbies are golf, taking naps, fishing, and playing the ukulele and singing old songs with George Wilson. A running gag is that Henry often plays the straight man dupe — either resulting from Dennis's pranks, or because of his own foolishness; once, he tried to save money on a Christmas tree by cutting one down in the country — and ended up paying $20.00 ($10.00 for a fine and $10.00 for the owner charging him for the tree).[14]

Alice Mitchell, née Johnson is Dennis' stay-at-home mother Alice, who is usually the reassuring figure to whom Dennis can run when things get too overwhelming, ready to greet him with a warm hug. Although she grew up among animals on a chicken ranch, a running gag is that Alice Mitchell has a phobia of snakes. Another running gag involves Dennis's ever-changing parade of new babysitters; no one will take the job twice. Alice is also known for punishing Dennis's misbehavior by having him sit in the corner in a rocking chair for timeout,[15][16][17] although a few times she has instituted tougher disciplinary measures, such as spanking, where afterward Dennis is shown crying or grumbling about the adversity.

Ruff Mitchell is Dennis's big, lovable, faithful dog (an Airedale mix) and best pal. Ruff is always eagerly following him around, accompanying him while Dennis is running, or riding his bike or skateboard.

Hot Dog is Dennis's rarely seen cat, which usually commiserates with him while he sits in the corner and reflects on his wrongdoings. Dennis gave the kitty this name after the cat ate a package of hot dogs.

Grampa Johnson (Oliver "Swede" Johnson) is Alice's father, who spoils Dennis often. He evokes the unintentional jealousy of Mr. Wilson, for he gets to see Dennis only on occasion, but Mr. Wilson sees him all the time. Because they are so much alike, Dennis and Grampa Johnson get along beautifully. Mr. Wilson also thinks that Johnson should act his age, but this advice is often ignored. To Grampa, life is worth living and he encourages Dennis to live it to the fullest. His wife's status is unknown; she is never seen in the comics, although she is mentioned twice — once when, thanks to Dennis, a furious Alice finds out that Henry had thrown his mother-in-law's gift (a tie) into the trash.;[9] another time, Alice wished her mother a Happy Mother’s Day by telephone.[9]

George Everett Wilson, Sr. is Dennis's cranky, cantankerous, middle-aged next-door neighbor, a retired postal carrier and (at least as far as Dennis is concerned) his best adult friend. Dennis likes Mr. Wilson, but unintentionally annoys him, as he regularly disrupts Mr. Wilson's attempts at a serene, quiet life. Dennis often interrupts Mr. Wilson's hobbies such as gardening, as well as coin and stamp collecting, at times accidentally damaging his property. As a result, the gruff old retiree displays a less than cordial attitude towards the young boy, though Dennis continues his well-meaning intrusions unabated. Actually, as many readers suspected, he is secretly fond of Dennis and misses him when he is away — although he would never openly admit it. Mr. Wilson is named after a teacher Hank Ketcham knew. Dennis often (especially in the TV series) refers to him as "Good Ol' Mr. Wilson". Although a running gag is that Dennis's pranks drive Mr. Wilson crazy, at times Dennis tries to do something nice for Mr. Wilson, such as the time Dennis left Ruff the dog and Hot Dog the cat with Mr Wilson so he would not be lonely on Father's Day, while Dennis and his father went to a baseball game,[20] or the time Dennis tries to cheer Mr. Wilson up on April Fool's day by placing a fake "Mitchell House for sale" sign up.[21] He is named after the first President of the United States, George Washington.

Martha Wilson is Mr. Wilson's engaging wife, who adores Dennis. Mrs. Wilson freely dotes on him and piles him with freshly baked cookies and milk. Martha sees Dennis as a surrogate grandson. She is named after the first First Lady of the United States, Martha Dandridge.

Tommy Anderson is Dennis' best friend (after Mr. Wilson). This character eventually disappeared from the strip, although he does make appearances in the Dennis the Menace Pocket Full of Fun books.

Joey McDonald is loyal, timid, and not too bright (but he's a year younger); he usually plays the sidekick to Dennis' schemes, and sees him as a big-brother figure. Dennis often gives him advice, and gives him little "nuggets" of wisdom and insight.

Margaret Wade is a freckled, red-haired, bespectacled know-it-all whose cloying and self-important demeanor is always getting on Dennis' nerves. She is attracted to Dennis and is stubbornly confident in the belief that she will marry him when they are adults, but he clearly has no interest in her. She always tries to improve Dennis and his manners, but only succeeds in annoying him. She has a certain amount of dislike for Gina, whom she sees as her competition. Gina gains Dennis' respect and admiration by just being herself, and Margaret's pretensions fail to make a mark on him. Margaret, who is two years older than Dennis,[13] is very ambitious: when she was five, she decided to join the Camp Fire Girls when she reaches the age of seven;[9] and in one comic, sells Girl Scout cookies to the Mitchells {especially Dennis!}[22] she likes taking ballet, singing Christmas carols, and taking piano lessons; she is a devout—if conventional—religious believer, and has a pet[9] of her own—a white Persian cat named Snowflake (which does tricks on command).[23] Besides hoping to marry Dennis, she also has decided to be the first female President of the United States. A running gag is that whenever Margaret tries to be genuinely nice to Dennis, such as inviting him over to her house to help decorate a Christmas tree,[24] or to be a guest at her birthday party,[9] or when Dennis tries to have Margaret give him too much candy[9]-Dennis "helpfulness" results in him being sent home! One weakness of Dennis is that no matter how much he dislikes Margaret, he cannot resist eating food at the Wades'.[24] Margaret and Dennis are not always adversaries; one time, Dennis sprayed both Margaret and Gina with his mother's perfume with a water pistol, which resulted in both girls playing with him and Dennis' mother becoming very angry with him![9] During one April Fool comic, Dennis decided to trick Margaret with compliments instead of pranks; to Dennis' horror, Margaret accepted the joke as real and dragged poor Dennis to hear her piano playing.[25]

Gina Gillotti is a fiercely independent young Italian-American girl, on whom Dennis is mostly unaware that he has a crush. Gina is tomboyish yet still feminine in appearance. She also likes Dennis in a future-sweethearts kind of way, but in contrast to his dislike of Margaret, Dennis actually enjoys being with Gina. He likes her because she is as independent-minded as he is, and she enjoys the same things that he does. Gina is aware that she is a girl, and woe betide anyone who thinks otherwise.

Jackson is an African American character named Jackson whom Ketcham decided to add to the cast in the late 1960s. Ketcham designed Jackson in the tradition of a stereotypical cartoon pickaninny, with huge lips, big white eyes, and just a suggestion of an Afro hair style. A panel from May 13, 1970, depicted Jackson and Dennis playing in the backyard, with Dennis saying to his father, "I'm havin' some race trouble with Jackson. He runs FASTER than I do!"[26] The attempt to integrate the feature did not go over well. Protests erupted in Detroit, Little Rock, Miami, and St. Louis, and debris was thrown at the offices of the Post Dispatch. Taken aback, Ketcham issued a statement explaining that his intentions were innocent, and Jackson was not used again.[27] However, another African American character named Jay Weldon appeared in the 1986 animated series to far less controversy, as he was not a stereotype.

Cowboy Bob is a film cowboy, whom Dennis idolizes; he appears in a series of Westerns known as Cowboy Bob films. The boy fails to realize that Westerns are rarely made in these times and that the films he is seeing are actually old repeats. In one story arc where Dennis' parents invite the retired actor to a party, they have Dennis meet him, to which Dennis comments that he must be "Cowboy Bob's grandpa!"

The inspiration for the comic strip came from Dennis Ketcham, the real-life son of Hank Ketcham,[29] who was only four years old when he refused to take a nap and somehow messed up his whole room. Hank tried many possible names for the character, and translated them into rough pencil sketches, but when his studio door flew open and his then-wife Alice, in utter exasperation, exclaimed, "Your son is a menace!",[30] the "Dennis the Menace" name stuck. The character of Henry Mitchell bore a striking resemblance to Ketcham. The Mitchell family of Dennis, Hank/Henry, and Alice were all named after the Ketchams.

Ketcham's line work has been highly praised over the years. A review on comicbookbin.com states: "...a growing legion of cartoonists, scholars, aficionados, etc. have come to appreciate the artistry of Dennis's creator, Hank Ketcham. Ketcham's beautiful artwork defines cartooning elegance. The design, the composition, and the line: it's all too, too beautiful."[31] AV Club reviewer Noel Murray wrote: "Ketcham also experimented with his line a little early on, tightening and thickening without losing the looseness and spontaneity that remains the strip's best aspect even now."[32]

In 2005, Dennis appeared as a guest for Blondie and Dagwood's 75th anniversary party in the comic strip Blondie.[33]

Ketcham received the Reuben Award for the strip in 1953.[34] He also was made honorary mayor of Wichita. He was quoted as saying, "I set the whole thing in Wichita, Kansas, and as a result I got made an honorary mayor of Wichita."[35]

Hank Ketcham retired from the comic strip in 1994,[30] turning over production of the strip to his assistants Ron Ferdinand and Marcus Hamilton. They continued it as a "zombie strip" after Ketcham's death in 2001, where the two, and since 2010, Scott Ketcham, continue the strip. [30]

Dennis the Menace appeared in A&W Restaurants advertising in the 1960s, then Dairy Queen marketing from 1971 until 2001, when he was dropped because Dairy Queen felt children could no longer relate to him. Dennis also appeared in the Sears Roebuck Wish Book Christmas catalog in the 1970s.

Dennis the Menace has been published in comic books and comic digests from the 1950s through the 1980s by a variety of publishers, including Standard/Pines (1953–58), Fawcett Comics (1958–80, during their only return to comics after settling the Captain Marvel lawsuit and selling much of their comics division to Charlton Comics), and Marvel Comics (1981–82). These included both newspaper strip reprints and original Dennis the Menace comic book stories, produced by others besides Ketcham. Al Wiseman, one of Ketcham's assistants in the 1950s and '60s, worked on many of them. Ron Ferdinand, Ketcham's Sunday page artist, drew several of the Dennis stories in the Marvel books, including the cover for issue No. 11.

The main comic book series (simply named Dennis the Menace) ran in tandem with the "Giant" series. The Dennis the Menace Giant Vacation Special[36] and Dennis the Menace Christmas Issue[37] were published by Standard in 1955. Those issues inaugurated the Giants series, which was published by Pines for issues 2–6,[38] and continued by Hallden/Fawcett for issues 6–75.[39] The Giant series was later renamed the Dennis the Menace Bonus Magazine Series, which started with issue No. 76 in 1970.[40] CBS and Hallden later retitled the series as The Dennis the Menace Big Bonus Series, which ran through issue #194 in October 1979.

By October 1979, Fawcett began publishing a separate series of 36 issues entitled Dennis the Menace and Mr. Wilson. By the second issue, the series was rechristened Dennis the Menace and His Friends which now involved Dennis, Mr. Wilson, friends Joey and Margaret, and dog Ruff. Because of this, the Mr. Wilson stories were alternated with the three characters as Ruff, Joey, and Margaret who each shared a No. 1 issue with Dennis.

Three other series of Dennis the Menace comic books also were published, beginning in 1961. First was Dennis the Menace and His Dog, Ruff, Dennis the Menace and His Pal, Joey was published in summer 1961, and Dennis the Menace and Margaret was published in the winter of 1969.

In 1977, Word Books, Inc. (now HarperCollins) commissioned Hank Ketcham Enterprises, Inc. to produce a series of 10 comic books under the title Dennis and the Bible Kids, with the usual cast of characters reading (and sometimes partly acting out) the stories of Joseph, Moses, David, Esther, Jesus, and other Biblical characters. These were sold through Christian bookstores and related outlets. Each issue contained several inspirational renderings by Hank Ketcham himself.

The Dennis the Menace Fun Fest and the Dennis the Menace Big Bonus series were revived for a short-issue run in 1980:

January: The Dennis the Menace Fun Fest #16

February: The Dennis the Menace Big Bonus #10

March: The Dennis the Menace Fun Fest #17

April: The Dennis the Menace Big Bonus #11

After these revival series, the Hallden and CBS comics run came to an end in 1980. Ketcham had half of the comic book rights purchased by Stan Lee and Marvel Comics, so they were able to produce a new series of Dennis the Menace comic books. The new Marvel series ran from December 1981 to November 1982. The smaller Dennis the Menace comic digests were published continually by Fawcett and Hallden between 1969 and 1980, and they were briefly resurrected in reprints by Marvel in 1982 for a run of three issues.

In 2005, comics publisher Fantagraphics began to reprint Ketcham's entire run on Dennis the Menace (excluding Sunday strips) in a projected 25-volume series over 11 years. No new volumes have been issued since 2009 and it is unknown when and if the series will resume.[49] They are published in hardcover editions as well as paperback.

From 1971 to 2001, Dennis the Menace was licensed by Dairy Queen as their official mascot, appearing in many commercials and on the chain's cups, bags, and other promotional items, until he was dropped because the chain felt children could no longer relate to him as much.

In 1952 Hank Ketcham spearheaded the construction of the Dennis the Menace Playground, designed by Arch Garner.[58] It opened in Monterey, California on November 17, 1956.[59] The playground featured a bronze statue of Dennis sculpted by Wah Chang. On the night of October 25, 2006, the 125-lb statue, which was estimated to be worth $30,000, was stolen from the playground.[60] It was not recovered, but in April 2007 it was replaced by a reproduction of another Dennis statue Chang made for the Ketchams.[61]